CNN has been reporting for two hours now that the Secret Service is investigating a group of hackers who claim to have stolen Romney's tax returns from Price Waterhouse Coopers. They are demanding $1 million or say they will publicly release the returns.

MODS: I looked but can find nothing here. If this is a duplicate, please delete.

first rule of extortion/black mail is that you give a little to prove you have what you say you do. This is nothing more than kids trying to make money off of political conflict. Not a bad idea, as long as you dont get caught. I’m calling pre-emptive BS.

4
posted on 09/06/2012 12:18:52 PM PDT
by HenryArmitage
(it was not meant that we should voyage far.)

This has been posted a few times today. Anyway, everyone knew that Romney’s tax returns were going to be uncovered sooner or later. Hopefully he is squeeky clean or at least can explain himself. What a shame if he were to lose with something so stupid as stubborness. Oh well. Of course it might be bogus just like the Donald Trump so called surprise. Maybe it is him who has the tax paperwork. lol.

5
posted on 09/06/2012 12:19:12 PM PDT
by napscoordinator
(Paul Ryan/Rick Santorum 2012....That would be the best scenario ever.)

Actually, if this is true it could end up being a win for Romney. If they are released in this way, the topic is taken away from the dems and if they then try to use them against him, he can rightfully argue that they are trying to score political points from an illegal activity.

It’s as clear as day what’s going on. Obama and Geithner have already viewed Romney’s tax returns, there’s something they want to hit him on, Reid’s intimidation tactics didn’t work, Romney won’t release them on his own, so the Obama campaign, a la Watergate, will get them released surrepticiously.

Surely the Donks have had Romney’s tax returns since they started whining incessantly about how he needs to release additional years. After all, why would they ask a question to which they do not know the answer.

But since they had no right to these returns, they could not release them. To do so would be to admit that they are criminals.

Enter, the convenient “Hacker Blackmailers”...

13
posted on 09/06/2012 12:21:44 PM PDT
by Haiku Guy
("The problem with Internet Quotes is that you never know if they are real" -- Abraham Lincoln)

Mitt Romney delivers his nomination acceptance speech during the final day of the Republican National Convention in Tampa.

PricewaterhouseCoopers told Whispers Wednesday that it has no evidence an anonymous group hacked its computer systems and stole GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s tax returns.

The hacking claim popped up earlier in the day on Pastebin, a website favored by the so-called hacktivist collective Anonymous, and was reported first by the Nashville City Paper.

The unidentified group said it had gained access to PricewaterhousecCoopers’s Franklin, Tenn., office and copied the tax documents of Romney and his wife Ann. The group also threatened interested parties, saying that if they do not want the tax documents released, the parties will pay a ransom of $1 million in Bitcoins, a digital currency that can be encrypted.

Reddit, the Atlantic Wire, and others were immediately skeptical of the hacking claim, and said there was no evidence this anonymous group was connected to the larger (capital “A”) Anonymous hacking collective.

And PricewaterhouseCoopers has now thrown water on the entire incident, telling Whispers in a statement:

“We are aware of the allegations that have been made regarding improper access to our systems. We are working closely with the United States Secret Service, and at this time there is no evidence that our systems have been compromised or that there was any unauthorized access to the data in question.”

PwC did, however, prepare Romney’s 2010 return.

Romney’s tax returns have been a source of public speculation for months, as the former Massachusetts governor has refused to release his tax returns before 2010. Democrats say Romney is trying to hide his wealth and possibly tax schemes.

Elizabeth Flock is a staff writer for U.S. News & World Report. You can contact her at eflock@usnews.com or follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

I’m guessing whatever is released will be forged. All Romney has to do is have PWC affirm that they are forgeries and leave it at that.

If they are NOT forgeries, and they have been gained illegally, there are certain legal issues with anyone making any sort of further unauthorized disclosure. By now it’s pretty obvious to the world that Romney has NOT consented to a public release of this information. Any person who makes any disclosure thereof is probaby in violation of Federal law, and is subject to proscution and probably a huge civil lawsuit as well.

This includes the media, since this is probably not covered by any sort of “free press/public figure” analysis.

17
posted on 09/06/2012 12:28:27 PM PDT
by henkster
(We're the slaves of the phony leaders...)

This group of “hackers” are Obama Administration operatives who got the returns from the IRS. This is a felony.

What they will release are fraudulent returns to make Romney look bad. The MSM will report these fraudulent returns as if they are real. Democrats like Harry Reid and the MSM will continually talk about how terrible Romney is.

If Obama is behind this, he has to be impeached!! This would make Watergate look like child’s play..(which it was).

I kinda still trust the secret service....so hopefully they will actually do their job and prosecute who-ever is behind this. I shudder to think what happens to a country of laws when the executive branch is not held to those laws.

26
posted on 09/06/2012 12:44:35 PM PDT
by penelopesire
(TIME FOR A SPECIAL PROSECUTOR!)

Probably just like the national security info... leaked by the White House, but no one will ever know by whom, and the MSM will not bother to cover it. So what is to be done? Have the DOJ look into it? The IRS? My guess is that some low level IRS person has recently retired to the tropics with a nice retirement allowance that suddenly balooned.

If Obama is behind this, he has to be impeached!! This would make Watergate look like childs play..(which it was).

You are kidding, aren't you? Boehner and the wusses in the House GOP wouldn't dare, and you know Reid would never even schedule a vote. Constitutional governmnet cannot work in our nation until we elect some reps with half a spine. Obama could be caught screwing a nine-year old and the GOP wouldn't vote articles of impeachment, after their perceived failure to impeach the serial rapist and convicted purjuror who preceded Bush II.

38
posted on 09/06/2012 1:12:17 PM PDT
by Spartan79
(I view great cities as pestilential to the morals, the health, and the liberties of man.)

No I am not kidding, but understand ,sadly ,your reasons for such pessimism. Obama will be impeached if he manages to win re-election regardless, as he has already committed numerous high crimes and misdemeanors already. It can and will be done...especially if we take the senate and keep the house. We are a nation of laws and until such time as we hand over our last freedom...we still own this country. Not the politicians and bureaucrats.

And if it is proven that Obama was behind this theft of personal data and ransom....even the lapdog media will have to get behind his impeachment.

39
posted on 09/06/2012 1:23:41 PM PDT
by penelopesire
(TIME FOR A SPECIAL PROSECUTOR!)

The lapdog media didn’t get behind Clinton’s impeachment. They supported him to the bitter end. - Clinton even had Democrat members of Congress lying for him. - I’ll forever speak kindly of Henry Hyde and the House for standing up to Clinton and doing the right thing. The Senate saw the evidence on Clinton, but still were afraid of jeopardizing their positions. So, they let the House and US dangle in the wind. - Now, we’re regularly treated to Bubba’s explosions of hot air couched in a cloak of respectability. If the people of this country are snowed by this Pillsbury Dough Boy and his wife again, I’m washing my hands. It’s disgusting.

The media is an afterthought. We don’t need them to uphold the laws in this country!!

I promise you...there are already high level talks underway about Obama’s impeachment if he manages to steal this election. There are people in high places that understand Obama’s crimes and also understand that this country will not survive four more years of his administration.

Have faith.

44
posted on 09/06/2012 2:02:40 PM PDT
by penelopesire
(TIME FOR A SPECIAL PROSECUTOR!)

Romney’s 1040 tax returns were taken from the PWC office 8/25/2012 by gaining access to the third floor via a gentleman working on the 3rd floor of the building. Once on the 3rd floor, the team moved down the stairs to the 2nd floor and setup shop in an empty office room. During the night, suite 260 was entered, and all available 1040 tax forms for Romney were copied. A package was sent to the PWC on suite 260 with a flash drive containing a copy of the 1040 files, plus copies were sent to the Democratic office in the county and copies were sent to the GOP office in the county at the beginning of the week also containing flash drives with copies of Romney’s tax returns before 2010. A scanned signature image for Mitt Romney from the 1040 forms were scanned and included with the packages, taken from earlier 1040 tax forms gathered and stored on the flash drives.

My husband theorized that “there are still at least some decent people in government” - and I hope he’s right. It’s just that Bill Clinton was allowed to slide, and the media did have a big hand in that. He had betrayed this country, and to see him now still an “elder statesman” commanding exorbitant speaking fees and still skating by on his “looks” (sorry, I don’t get it). Now, we face the specter of Obama and voter fraud beyond our wildest imagination, an arrogant dictator who seems intent on totally disarming this country, while other countries (Iran for one) build up nuclear arsenals, blocking this country from achieving energy independence in favor of failing “green” energy companies and unicorn fart technologies that are naive in the extreme, turning over Middle Eastern country after country to his Muslim buddies, etc. - and being a “nobody” who can do nothing about it (except run my mouth on FR) is most frustrating. I don’t think this country can survive four more years of this guy. HE HAS BEEN HORRIBLE, and the grueling, relentless day after day of hearing him drone on and on, reading his teleprompter while we go down the drain is excruciating!

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